quote:ROME (Reuters) - An Italian museum on Thursday defied Pope Benedict and refused to remove a modern art sculpture portraying a crucified green frog holding a beer mug and an egg that the Vatican had condemned as blasphemous.

The board of the Museion museum in the northern city of Bolzano decided by a majority vote that the frog was a work of art and would stay in place for the remainder of an exhibition.

The wooden sculpture by the late German artist Martin Kippenberger depicts a frog about 1 metre 30 cm (4 feet) high nailed to brown cross and holding a beer mug in one outstretched hand and an egg in another.

Called "Zuerst die Fuesse," (Feet First), it wears a green loin cloth and is nailed through the hands and the feet in the manner of Jesus Christ. Its green tongue hangs out of its mouth.

Well, I know I'm going to regret this: I do, too. I'm not sure "blasphemous" is the right word, though. At the very least, it's a lack of respect for the suffering of others.

ETA: I realize that the artist claimed his sculpture was a depiction of human angst. His angst can't begin to compare to the reality of crucifixion, which was a form of state terrorism and torture inflicted almost exclusively on slaves and the poor and exploited of the empire. Just think of the other forms of terror, torture, and death just waiting to be given this kind of whimsical treatment.

I may not like the art piece but I respect the right of an artist to express his views however she/he pleases, as long as it doesn't break any laws. The Pope has no right trying to stop the exhibition. He can condemn it along with any other art critic or general audience might but that's as far as his influence should go.

Originally posted by RosaL:[b]I'm not sure "blasphemous" is the right word, though. At the very least, it's a lack of respect for the suffering of others.[/b]

Funny how realistic depictions of a [b]real crucifixion of a man[/b] don't bother the great art critic Benedict XVI at all. He's perfectly happy to have one hanging in every school classroom and church in the world.

Compared with that, a single depiction of a crucified frog in an art gallery is hardly cause for expressing shock at someone's insensitivity to human suffering.